Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Bachmann Video Aims at Perry on Immigration

All week Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has been attacked by Republican rivals over immigration, and on Friday, Representative Michele Bachmann delivered one of the sharpest tongue-lashings of all.

“We can’t settle for a president who doesn’t understand that illegal immigration is illegal and shouldn’t be rewarded,’’ Mrs. Bachmann says in a video released by her campaign.

Never naming Mr. Perry in the 84-second video, Mrs. Bachmann nonetheless aims directly at his record on immigration, which, because he is governor of a border state, has been more moderate than policies favored by conservative Republicans elsewhere in the country.

Mrs. Bachmann accuses Mr. Perry of promoting “magnet policies” like a law he signed allowing undocumented residents who graduated from Texas high schools to attend public colleges on in-state tuition.

She ridicules Mr. Perry for labeling a fence along all 1,200 miles of the Texas-Mexico border “idiocy.” In Mr. Perry’s view, it is more practical to selectively fence the border and to police open areas. But Mrs. Bachmann responds: “I won’t settle for porous borders. I will build a fence.’’

In a new critique, she denounces Mr. Perry’s position on Arizona’s harsh immigration law, which he has said he would not support in Texas. “We can’t settle for a president who said he supports states’ rights but abandoned the state of Arizona,’’ Mrs. Bachmann says.

Sensing his vulnerability on immigration, Mr. Perry backed away Wednesday from a remark in a debate in which he accused opponents of in-state tuition breaks of being heartless. His word choice, he said in an interview with Newsmax.com, was “inappropriate.”

Mrs. Bachmann is not having it. In her video she says: “Last week we conservatives were accused of not having a heart. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just that we have a mind to go with that heart, and failing to act rationally under the rule of law has created chaos on our borders.’’

The remarks seem directed especially at Republicans in Iowa, where there are signs that the immigration issue is stalling the momentum that Mr. Perry seized from Mrs. Bachmann after she won the state’s straw poll in August. Earlier in the week, Mrs. Bachmann’s campaign manager, Keith Nahigian, identified Iowa as a must-win state in her quest for the nomination. “She has to win Iowa and move on from there,’’ Mr. Nahigian said in an audio slide show the campaign released. “By winning Iowa she will be on a path to victory.’’

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…